May 2007 Archives

This year, in my quest for work-life balance, I decided to relook the way I respond to things. A Christian self-help book mentioned that we need to set boundaries for ourselves. This, and advice from other friends like QO, told me that I had to be more assertive and say 'no' when I really cannot commit extra time to a new request, be it from friends, family or work.

There is no need to say 'yes' too easily when someone else could (and should) have done the job; when my main work is affected; when it really isn't important or urgent as it looks to be. I say yes either because I want to please or impress the other person, or I'm afraid, or I really don't know the boundaries and genuinely want to help out. Of course, in an emergency many of us probably won't mind helping out, but we shouldn't be taken for granted, either. Some 'emergencies' occur because of bad planning, and when it happens regularly, we should not encourage it by offering to clean up the mess again and again.

Saying 'yes' blindly also means less time to do existing work, resulting in a drop in quality. Then, onlookers (who don't know the full story) will say oh, she's not so good anymore. The person who suffers is the one who takes on too many things. Priority should be given to the proper projects (within scope) that were planned way in advance. Overall, it's an issue I've prayed about frequently.

This morning, I dreamed of two imaginary instances where my boundaries were again tested. Firstly, I was back in time, planning my 2nd trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas. While packing my bags, my (dream) parents suggested that since Austin had nice golf courses (which I frankly haven't heard of in real life), I should bring my golf clubs along as well. I said no, it's crazy to bring them! They're so heavy, and I'm probably going to carry lots of other stuff back home. They insisted again. I said no and finally they left it at that. That was part one.

The second scenario: The landscape quickly morphed into a school-like setting, beside a swimming pool (perhaps it's my exposure to the ACJC Swimathon that did it). Free fruit juices were available and I ordered a mango drink. It was very refreshing. As some of us sat by the poolside watching the competition, a schoolgirl (who was, disturbingly, dressed in an RGS pinafore - maybe it was my HP Alumni talk in January that triggered this :P), came up and sipped the drink in my hand!!

As I didn't know who she was, I protested, and used the excuse that I had mouth ulcers (which was true) and she shouldn't be sharing drinks with me. She responded by saying, "I'm using my own straw". As she continued sipping from my drink, another of her friends came along (also in RGS uniform), took out her straw and both quickly sipped their way until half the drink was gone. At which point I thought enough was enough, and told both of them to stop nipping my drink. Of course, they were not happy, but I didn't care what they thought. It's my drink! Go get their own. [Disclaimer: I have nothing against RGS girls! This is just a dream! :P]

Shortly after that, I woke up and realised that God was perhaps testing me in theory, so I could reinforce my actions in practice. So far, in real life, enforcing my boundaries within reason has resulted in the other parties (so used to me being compliant) being unpleasantly surprised, realising that they can no longer take advantage of me. Initial reactions were harsh and, for want of a better word, reactive. But so far, I haven't been bothered again. In fact, these people have become nicer to me now.

My dreams were very realistic and I think I'd behave that way in real life, too. I just need more practice enforcing my limits and be more confident about it. If not, the only person who suffers will be me.

This Monday, Melvin Yuan's article, 'What businesses need to do in the changed environment', was published in the Business Times. Hurrah!

He notes that a few companies here are now engaging bloggers to publicise their products, while others watch cautiously from the sidelines. As citizen journalism becomes more popular, corporations must change their mindset and embrace change. Customers can be your best advocates, and they should be engaged in blogs or forums. Before this happens, though, those within the company must understand the nature of the social web. Honesty, integrity and trust are very important here, because a wrong move can subject the company to intense scrutiny.

Mr Brown was featured. Also mentioned were a few groups I'm currently involved in - the Gahmenbloggers, which I co-founded with Ivan, the Second Life Singapore Community (group leader Alvin). At the rate things are going, I might turn out to be a Digital Movement groupie as well, considering my attendance rate at their recent events, like Nexus and BlogOut.

Knowing the people behind Ping, Singapore Angle and Singapore Entrepreneurs also makes things feel like one big family. So far, everyone I've met is brilliant, humble and willing to share ideas - very important qualities for developing our own Web 2.0 community.

Somehow, I feel this can make more headway than lots of stuffy board meetings and proprietary IT jargon. We're building our own Silicon Valley culture here, where ideas flow freely. Now, that's progress.

I awoke this morning earlier than expected. Though I was on leave, my body's alarm clock was still geared towards working hours. In any case, I was spending my birthday shopping for new clothes with mum!

However, I soon learnt that it was Day 1 of the Great Singapore Sale. Thoughts of crowds of aunties elbowing people around, and long queues, filled my mind. However, the places we went to along Orchard Road appeared relatively tame. Total clothes tally: 3 dresses, 3 tops and 3 bottoms. A mix of casual stuff and a couple of items suitable for work.

We had lunch at Dome and because I was a member and it was my birthday, my main course was free! My coffee card expired, but the Dome manager kindly extended it by a few weeks. We ordered two Cafe Viennas. I threw in a $10 voucher that Dome sent to me last year. That made our entire meal free! Hurrah.

Next, I wanted to get body-pampering products. Was torn between products from Crabtree & Evelyn and Body Shop (think of the Paradox of Choice), but eventually chose the latter. Some of their pastes smelled good enough to eat. I was thinking that if there was a bomb attack and I was trapped in my bathroom for days, the first thing I'd try eating would be my Body Shop products!

Had dinner with parents at Valentino's. We had beef carpaccio, baked eggplant, porcini mushrooms, different types of seafood pasta and a super soft braised beef dish cooked by the mama of Valentino. Finally, the staff surprised me with a birthday cake and song! Other patrons in the restaurant clapped as well. A little boy from another table ran up to us, shouting "HELLO! HELLO!" and we said Hello back to him!

All in all, it was a busy but good day. Life should be like this more often...

I arrived at BlogOut 2007 late due to work and the fact that I thought that Market Street was a very short street, and happily parked at one end, not realising it was broken into two separate streets with the same name. Murphy's Law required that I park, of course, at the wrong end, and it was only with the kind directions of Melvin Yuan that I managed to find my way to the Geek Terminal.

The Geek Terminal was packed with entrepreneurial bloggers like Bernard Leong, Web 2.0 developers like Uzyn, Herry and Choon Keat, fellow Media Socialists Kevin Lim, Ben Koe, Preetam, Walter.

I also caught up with geek girls Priscilla and Divya (also a fellow WebSG author, along with Lucian who was busy taking photographs). I spoke briefly with James Seng and also caught up with Veron who is in very hot demand as a web designer.

After a general panel discussion moderated by Walter, with guest stars Joe Augustin (DJ) and Jennifer Lewis (Editor of Stomp) also taking to the mic, a variety of topics were addressed at various tables. I chose to sit in for the discussion on Corporate Blogging instead of Second Life.

The perspectives offered initially were from a startup's point of view based on members' experiences. I almost wanted to talk about corporate Government blogs, but realised it was not going to be a very cool topic, so I just listened instead. The main question we agreed on, is WHY do you want to start a blog? While you don't need to have many objectives, you should have at least one, and stay true to it.

We also agreed that people who start corporate blogs just for the sake of 'getting rich/more sales' may not get what they're looking for. In many cases, the benefits of corporate blogging are intangible. They may or may not lead to more sales. In one case, a corporate blog's frankness led to a top employee joining that company instead of a better-paying job in another company that didn't have such a blog.

We discussed having internal blogs as a 'safer' alternative, if unsure of the market's reaction. However, internal blogs have different purposes from public blogs. The focus for the former is more on knowledge sharing, whereas the latter is very much a public relations effort in addition to sharing information. Also, employees must be driven to blog, and be empowered. In many corporations, these are stumbling blocks.

Personalities behind blogs are important. Popular corporate bloggers may take their readership with them when they leave the company. Some said they'd feel different if their favourite blogger was no longer writing. CEOs were mentioned as being potential bloggers as they had the overall vision of the company in mind. However, a Microsoft rep shared that many of their staff in different departments were contributing to blogs (as any Scoble fan would know).

In the middle of the discussions, I caught up with Brennan. Together with him, Kevin, Preetam and Julian Wong, we had drinks after the party ended. I then had my own Second Life discussion with fellow Second Lifers Jacky Peng (former academic) and Aileen Sim (pioneer of the virtual credit card company). Jacky brought up the concept of interior design/architecture firms using Second Life, which I also thought of previously. We were both wondering why it hasn't been taken up in a big way.

It was nice to finally meet The Digital Movement folks (some a second time) such as Estee, Ming Yeow, Chern Jie, and Renzhi.

View the rest of my BlogOut 2007 photos while I recover from post-celebration stupor. Questions will be asked in the aftermath:

1. Will Divya, Mac advocate, really auction off the copy of Windows Vista she won, like she said she would?
2. Will Aileen buy an Xbox 360 to go with the game she won?
3. Will Microsoft buy Yahoo! or are they just happy with funding more events such as these? (so we hope)

See other bloggers' coverage of the event: SGEntrepreneurs, Walter, Brennan

Firstly, I'm not watching the game. My health is again deteriorating and I need more sleep.

Secondly, I think AC Milan will win this time, provided they don't reach penalty shootouts.

We'll see how it goes. I've got the BBC page refreshing on my laptop and when I wake up, I will know the score.

[Update: 2-1 to AC Milan, and their website is currently down! Haha. I also made over £500,000 from BBC Sportdaq after buying shares in lots of Liverpool players. ]

I've been invited to BlogOut, and it sounds like we geeks are going to have some fun. I hope the wireless connection will be less sluggish than at Nexus, cos we'll probably be Twittering away!

Read more about Blogout and check out their Wikispace.

See you there. If you read this blog, do come up and say 'hi'!

The End of Poverty was a book I picked up last year. Its optimistic title caught my eye, intriguing me to attempt reading it, despite sucking at economics in Junior College.

What makes someone brilliant is not just his depth of knowledge but his ability to explain complex issues in simple terms for a layperson to understand. Jeffrey Sachs has managed to do that for me.

I was amused by Bono's foreword. Can a rock star write? The answer is yes, and poetically. However, Bono is quick to play down his celebrity status, and assert that in years to come, Sachs' autograph will be worth more than his.

The key points in Sachs' book are that while the world is slowly moving out of extreme poverty, there are some who are still stuck in the 'poverty trap'. An impoverished household has no savings, thus there is no capital investment. With depreciation, it results in negative economic growth. However, with the right assistance, there will be enough for household savings, leading to investment (e.g. in farming equipment) that will then lead to economic growth, offsetting depreciation and population growth.

Today, May Leong, the woman who died from overwork last month, was supposed to turn 29.

She would have been 29 today. I wonder how her mother, other family members and friends are feeling right now.

Work can be satisfying. Work can pay the bills. But work isn't worth dying for.

We interrupt this busy schedule (of mine) to announce that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will collaborate to produce and direct a series of Tintin films! (alerted via Digg; go vote)

Fans of the French reporter and little white dog, rejoice! Billions of blue blistering barnacles! This calls for a glass-shattering operatic song of joy. I'm curious to see how they'd adapt the characters from comic book to real life.

Technorati tags: Tintin

Calling all Mac experts! I'm having the same problem that Andy Budd had - the family iMac has been unable to get past the startup screen. The blue loading bar looks like it's 95% complete but it just hangs there. Even when starting in Safe mode, it hangs at exactly the same spot. I can't get beyond this stage to type anything.

I, too, checked out the Apple Support site and did more Googling, but have yet to find a solution. It is not reassuring looking at people's forum posts and not getting any replies so far that have helped!

What may have happened is that a software update was recently attempted, but it was not successful/complete. The iMac's running OS10.3.9 (the last I recall). Since then, the iMac has been hanging on startup. The iMac uses a G5 and not an Intel processor. It's the older version without the built-in iSight.

I tried calling AppleCentre Orchard's support line as we bought it from that store a couple years ago, but it is closed today. Any other ideas as to what I can do? In any case, I will probably call the store tomorrow.

Technorati tags: Apple, Mac, iMac, G5, troubleshooting

I've been using Google Analytics for a while, and was absolutely thrilled to hear they were upgrading the services. After waiting with bated breath for a few days, my account was upgraded. After a quick look-over, here's my take on it.

The new user interface is lovely! Don't think Google is only good at back end stuff. They're catching up with Yahoo! in this area (though a lot more can be done to dress up their Gadgets to compete with Yahoo!'s Konfabulator).

My favourite new Google Analytics feature so far is the ability to export graphical reports to PDF. This is useful for presenting reports in a more attractive manner. Previously, I would either settle for an Excel spreadsheet or screen capture the relevant pie charts.

In the new version, all the graphs remain in Flash, but with more dynamic features like a new date range selector. I like the larger world map which gives an overview by region (Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania). Clicking on each region lets you zoom into states and cities.

Another feature that will prove to be very convenient, is email notifications. You can now schedule emails to be sent to you regularly, with an attachment containing the latest statistics report. This means you no longer have to remember to log into Google Analytics at a certain date each month and extract the report manually.

However, the new version isn't entirely bug-free. There was an error message when I tried viewing the map with a date ranging from Jan to April 2007, despite my account being active and gathering data for the last couple of years. I hope this is just a temporary kink since a lot of migration is currently taking place.

Another area that can be fine-tuned is the 'Add to Dashboard' feature. When you first log in, you'll see the Dashboard which is very much like the personalised Google News page that has summaries of each topic. Likewise in Analytics, you can drag and drop different windows showing various types of data on your website to re-arrange them. Also, when you go to a specific section for more info, you can click on the 'Add to Dashboard' button to add that data. This in itself is fine.

However, the 'Add to Dashboard' button appears even on sections which have already been added to the Dashboard. You only find out when you click on it, and a message informs you that it's already there. Google should remove the button where it is redundant.

More info on the new Google Analytics from the official blog and their consultant evangelist.

Technorati tags: Google Analytics

The Wall Street Journal reports Wal-Mart's biggest sales decline in 28 years. Factors cited also affected other retailers - bad weather, a change in the National Retail Federation's financial reporting timeline, tax refund spending, higher gas prices. Which leaves us with another factor - generally questionable business strategies.

I am working on more detailed blog posts on the following topics, which are of great /increasing interest to me:

1. Web 2.0 - How it is the mindset (of sharing, collaboration, contribution etc) and not just the technology that makes something truly Web 2.0
2. How planning to have 'viral marketing' can quite often be an irony
3. Why local vendors seem to like pitching search engine marketing as just buying keywords, when we should also be ensuring our own websites' content is engaging and code is optimised for search engine indexing (I'm still doing research on this topic but these are my initial thoughts)

There, I've laid it all out so that I will be obliged to blog. You have permission to nag me if I don't write anything about this in the next month or two.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning some old website's code that was handed over to me for temporary maintenance.

It is the year 2007 but people are still using nested tables to arrange their text. Imagine a three-column table, with spacer GIFs in the right and left columns and the body text inside the middle column. And that table's residing inside another table.

I just contributed my first review to Hungrygowhere.com after dining at another up-and-coming Italian restaurant with Italian chef and local wife, Trattoria Lafiandra. Read my review here.

There's a new Web 2.0 service called Fleck, which lets you make annotations on websites in a graphical format.

For starters, here's what I did for my own blog.

Fleck will probably be useful in making notes on academic websites and other sources which currently do not have any feedback mechanism, such as the comments feature in most blogs.

It can also be used as an instructional tool, guiding beginners on using certain technical online services.

Fleck has some room for improvement. For one, it is dependent on the annotator's screen resolution in its placement of notes. I'm using my Dell widescreen laptop, which is set at 1280x800. My current blog layout is set to 700 pixels wide. If you viewed the above link at a different resolution, some of my labelling may not make sense as the notes would be pointing to the wrong areas.

For blogs which are comments-enabled, it is very unlikely that Fleck will be used at all, because extra effort would be required from the person posting the comment. His comment will also be lost as most other readers will not think of going to Fleck to see if they missed anything (unless Fleck suddenly becomes as popular as Twitter, which is unlikely).

Still, it is fairly unique in its offerings and will probably be around for a while.

[Update: Duh, just learnt of a similar homegrown service, Sharedcopy. Why not support them instead! ]

Technorati tags: Fleck, Web2.0

I just read this letter in the Straits Times forum and wholly agree with it. The writer notes that while Singapore has had an edge against the Chinese so far because we are more fluent in English, this gap is quickly eroding. Also, as other forum writers have noted, we are required to be bilingual, thus we are not often strong in either language. The writer concludes by advising us to focus on speaking both languages properly.

More drummer drama

I certainly hope this isn't a curse, but we nearly lost our (third) drummer today.

My band, the Moon Jumpers, met up for a practice session this evening. However, our drummer, J, informed me he was going to be late. So we practised using pre-programmed beats (which in a way was good because we now have ideas to make our concert more funky).

Then, after an hour, we thought it was too late to wait any more, so I gave J a call.

He sounded a bit stunned. "Didn't I just call you 5 minutes ago to tell you I can't make it?"

There I was, happily ranting away about Web Standards again when Ryan Lin pointed out that my page had XHTML errors. Eep! How did that happen?

Firstly, I missed a couple of stray ampersands in my 'Asides' column. I'm usually quite picky with invalid URLs, but was so excited to hear that Prince William was single again (yeah right), I forgot to modify the URL accordingly. Heh.

However, there were still so many bugs! It turned out that my Twitter badge was the main source of errors and warnings, due to the use of 'embed' instead of 'object' tags. I tried switching to the Javascript version, but it too had errors and warnings. I started reading Flash Satay on A List Apart, and managed to reduce a number of errors, but it wasn't enough as Twitter had many other parameters that were still considered invalid.

I cried out for help - where else but on Twitter... and help came in the form of Dominik Schwind who kindly pointed me to another website which had exactly what I was looking for. Although it was entirely in German, thank God that HTML, like LOVE, is a universal language. So I was able to modify my own parameters - which this dude cleverly separated out - and voila! No more validation errors!

Thanks a lot guys... solved this within 45 minutes ;-) Geek power rules.

Over the weekend, friends told me of a Singaporean woman who recently died due to overwork.

The woman, May Leong, had even written on her blog about her overwork before she died.

I asked my friends to send me the article ... and they did. It's titled 'Vitamin M won't cure my health' from the New Paper - a popular English language tabloid in Singapore. It is really worth a read because surely none of us, not even I, would want to literally kill ourselves with work.

So pleased to hear that Liverpool smashed penalties into Chel$ki's faces and showed Moan-rinho that he can put down Rafa Benitez all he wants... Football speaks louder than words.

I'm wondering if a Man U-Liverpool final is possible... If not, it will be AC Milan v Liverpool all over again! Without wobbly-knees Dudek.

Yesterday, I was diagnosed with a high fever (39 degrees Celcius) and acute tonsilitis. Apparently the swelling went all the way down my throat and two doctors who looked into my mouth, had the shudders. It sounded pretty bad. Even today, it still hurts when I speak.

As such, I will be resting at home and trying my best not to do any work. I've been suffering from broken sleep, often waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I dream of the work I haven't completed yet. Definitely have to re-prioritise my life as my health, social life and time with God has been affected.

I will thus be cutting down on all activities until I get better. For those who are kindly planning farewells and birthday dinners later this month, I think (and pray) I'll be well enough (and not contagious) to share in the celebrations. To friends with babies, I have been quite tardy and promise to visit you ... once I stop falling ill so often!

Taking myself as an example, I appeal to everyone not to overwork yourselves, because it really isn't worth it. Friends have been saying that to me over the past couple of weeks and I know theoretically that it makes sense, but felt helpless to change things myself. Slowly I have to assert myself more, say 'no' more often instead of trying to please people all the time.

Being physically, mentally and emotionally worn out will whittle away the enthusiasm and passion for the things we currently love doing.

While cross-reading 'Naked Conversations' and 'The Corporate Blogging Book', I came across this post, The Pursuit of Busyness, by Associate Professor Andrew McAfee of the Harvard Business School, and can emphathise with it. He writes about how employees are often shy to embrace Enterprise 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis etc) as well as the new mindset.

If you've ever done web design before, do take this survey. Some of the answers I gave made me smile, because it's been years since my job title was 'web designer'.

While web designing is not my main role anymore, as an overseer of numerous projects I still use my whip judiciously. We can all play a part. Singapore clients must ask for web standards and accessibility to be applied to their projects, so that agencies will realise there is a demand and bother to learn the stuff.

However, clients must know some code too - because some agencies will claim they do apply web standards, but when you look at their code there are tables (not for tabular data) and font tags (or something that obviously looks like a .style1 created in Dreamweaver). There are still vendors out there who design fancy bullet points by using a two-column table. They insist that they comply - 'But we do use CSS to colour the table background!' Be warned.

Singapore schools much teach students about web standards and accessibility. So far the only design students I've met who know about web standards, learnt it on their own. When it comes to the web, it isn't just a huge graphic that you splice into multiple cubes and plonk onto a web page. But I'm thinking the mindset is more like, 'Who cares, it's just more work and we have other projects to rush. Teacher won't grade us on our coding. It can work in IE, rite?'

I've spoken to people who are trying to adapt to web standards. You can tell who they are, as their code is a mix of valid CSS and tags embedded within HTML. These are the people we should encourage and teach. I'd call them the real 'transitionals'. They see some value in web standards but have told me that a lot of time is required for their designers to learn how to make the switch.

Well, I'd say in the long term, more time is saved. You will no longer need to re-code all your pages to change a visual element on all of them. You will no longer have to tell your server to generate print-friendly pages using a separate template. You will no longer have to design separate web pages that can be viewed on mobile devices, projectors, or be listened to by visually handicapped people.

Unless you're the type of agency who likes to charge by the amount of time spent on the project. I'm not impressed with that. A proactive, innovative agency could propose other useful features for the website and the client may take it on. Only an agency that's totally out of ideas will fall back on outdated coding techniques and do nothing else to help themselves. And we wouldn't want to hire them, would we?